Daily Update On Current Affairs – October 05, 2017

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given the following set of approvals. The full list of Cabinet Approvals is given as follows. The Cabinet has approved 1. The Extradition Treaty between India and Lithuania- The Treaty would provide a legal framework for seeking extradition of terrorists, economic offenders and other criminals from and to Lithuania. 2. The MoU between India and Switzerland on Technical Cooperation in Rail Sector.3. MoU on Upgradation of the Women’s Police Training Centre at Yamethin, Myanmar. 4. Cabinet approved the renaming of Kandla Port as Deendayal Port.

Param Shah Appointed as FICCI UK Director

The apex industry body, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) announced the appointment of Param Shah as the new Director for the United Kingdom (UK) operations. Shah will succeed Pratik Dattani whose tenure with FICCI ended recently.

No service charges on E-Tickets in Railways till March 2018

On 29th Sept 2017, the Indian Railways announced that the exemption from service charges on E-Tickets will be continued till March 2018. Service charges amount to almost Rs. 20 to Rs . 40 per ticket.

Bangladesh Signs 4.5-bn Loan Deal with India

Bangladesh signed a 4.5 billion third line of credit (LoC) agreement with India for its infrastructure and social sector development. The agreement was signed in the presence of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and his Bangladeshi counterpart A M A Muhith. Economic Relations Division Secretary Kazi Shofiqul Azam signed the deal on behalf of Bangladesh while Managing Director of the Export-Import Bank of India (Exim) David Rasquinha signed for India. Under the agreement, Bangladesh would have to purchase 65 to 75 percent of the services, goods or works from the Indian market with the money to be provided under the third LoC following the precedence of the previous two nearly identical agreements.

2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Announced

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2017 to Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson “for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution”. Jacques Dubochet is from University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Joachim Frank is from Columbia University, New York, USA. Richard Henderson is from MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK. The 2017 Nobel medicine prize went to three Americans- Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young. The 2017 Nobel Physics Prize has been awarded to Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory.

Russia Launches ‘World’s Biggest & Most Powerful’ Nuclear Icebreaker

Russia has launched the world’s largest nuclear-powered icebreaker ship in a bid to expand its strategic presence in the resource-rich, terrain of the Arctic. The massive vessel, named Sibir (Siberia), was developed as part of a huge push by the Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation to open up crucial shipping lanes in the icy Northern Sea Route.

BBC World offers service in four more Indian Languages

The British Broadcasting Corporation or the BBC has started to offer service in four more Indian languages – Gujarati, Punjabi, Marathi and Telugu. With this, the BBC’s Delhi bureau will be the largest outside the United Kingdom. BBC already offers its services in English, Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali.

Rajnish Kumar appointed new Chairman of State Bank of India

The Government named Rajnish Kumar as the new chairman of State Bank of India, for a three-year term. He will succeed Arundhati Bhattacharya. At present, Rajnish Kumar is one of the managing directors of SBI. The Banks Board Bureau (BBB) had interviewed four managing directors for the post at the end of June and had recommended a name to the government. The government had extended Bhattacharya’s tenure for a year, with effect from October 7, 2016.

RBI leaves key rates unchanged in its monetary policy

On the basis of an assessment of the current and evolving macroeconomic situation at its meeting, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to keep the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) unchanged at 6.0 percent. Consequently, the Reverse Repo Rate (RRR) under the LAF remains at 5.75 percent, and the Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate at 6.25 percent. The projection of real Gross Value Added (GVA) growth for 2017-18 has been revised down to 6.7 percent from the August 2017 projection of 7.3 percent, with risks evenly balanced. The Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) has been reduced to 19.5% of NDTL from 20% w.e.f 14th October 2017. Dr. Urjit Patel is the 24th Governor of RBI.

Reserve Bank of India opens branch in Dehradun

RBI has opened a branch in Dehradun (Uttarakhand) on the 3rd October 2017. This will enable transactions of the State Govt to be done in an effective way. Earlier all the transactions of the State were being carried out from RBI, Kanpur.

Dr. Soumya Swaminathan appointed WHO’s Deputy Director General

The current Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Dr. Soumya Swaminathan has been appointed as the Deputy Director General of the World Health Organisation. This is the highest position to be held by an Indian at WHO. Dr. Soumya is a paediatrician and has more than 30 years of service. She is also an acclaimed researcher on tuberculosis and HIV.

World Space Week – October 4th to October 10th

The week between the 4th October to the 10th October is observed as the World Space Week. This was first observed in 1999. It is marked by two big events – On 4th October 1957, Sputnik 1 was launched. And the Outer Space Treaty was signed on 10th October 1967. The theme for this year’s World Space week is “Exploring New Worlds in Space”.